Canada will kill its 100,000th patient through its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) program, come spring 2026.This estimated figure was popularized by Kelsi Sheren, a Canadian anti-MAiD podcaster, who shared the news in an article and on British rapper Zuby's podcast.The figures estimate a 4% increase in MAiD deaths in 2025 (statistics not yet released), with a similar projected estimate for 2026.From MAiD's legalization in 2016 up until the most recent official data from Health Canada in 2024, MAiD has euthanized 76,800 people.With this conservative estimate for 2025 and 2026, this adds up to over 100,00 deaths in a decade. With such a large number of Canadians dying from euthanasia, one has to wonder: How did we get here?.An anesthesiology doctor and researcher at the University of Toronto, Dr. Connor Brenna, discussed in a paper the history of regulated death.It seems throughout history, there has always been debate over "ethical" assisted suicide, dating back two millennia.That's a long time to cover, but history is all about the highlights, so do not fret, and let's see how MAiD became what it is today. The traditional perspective of a doctor's role clearly does not accept ideas of euthanasia, as written in the Hippocratic notion of "primum non nocere," or "first, do no harm.".Despite this, Brenna states there has always been a question floating around in the minds' of medical professionals throughout the centuries: "Who owns a life, and what are the ethical implications in advancing (or otherwise choosing not to delay) a death?"The Hippocratic Oath, which Greek and Roman physicians used to swear upon and is even used to some degree in modern medicine, as oaths are still sworn today, takes a clear stance on euthanasia. The original Hippocratic Oath states this: "I will not give a drug that is deadly to anyone if asked (for it), nor will I suggest the way to such a counsel."Nevertheless, Brenna points out Greek and Roman physicians did, in fact, sometimes give patients drugs for euthanasia..In the centuries that followed different religions appeared, many fundamentally against euthanasia.Ideas of life being a trust from God, or that shortening or prolonging life being was an interference with God's plan — with the consequence of doing so being a denial to the afterlife or reincarnation.Religion said tampering with a higher power meant consequences beyond the physical world.The trend would continue during the Renaissance period (14th to 17th century), despite the philosophical challenges to church authority in Europe..However, prior to this, in the Middle Ages an idea brought by St. Thomas Aquinas would have a lasting effect for centuries to come.He called it the rule of the Double Effect: in situations where one cannot avoid all harmful actions an action that intends to prevent harm can be justified even if the outcome is harmful. This was applied to scenarios where doctors use pharmacological means to treat a patient's pain, even if it means inadvertently ending the patient's life.In 1843, Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher wrote about a parallel idea, the "Tragic Hero" was a character type who would abandon one ethical commitment for another of higher ethical importance, while being socially justified despite abandoning their prior commitment..These concepts could be applied to MAiD — but there was still one issue to sort out, which Brenna points out: Neither idea resolved the question of whether voluntary death could be deemed of higher ethical importance.Fast forward to the 20th century, ideas of euthanasia "waxed and waned" in North America, increasing during the Great Depression (1930s) and decreasing in the aftermath of the Second World War due to fears of its association with socialism.Here's where we get to Canada.In 1972, suicide was decriminalized in Canada — however, it was still a crime for another party to be involved.One woman, two decades later, would start a wider debate by demanding the right to have a doctor euthanize her. .In the early 1990s, a Canadian named Sue Rodriguez received a diagnosis of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, a nervous system disease, leading to progressive paralysis. Rodriguez, 42 years old at the time, wanted a doctor to take her own life when she could no longer do so herself — something she argued for at her address to Parliament in 1992. "If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?" she asked.The Supreme Court ruled against her 5-4 in 1993..The case came into conflict with Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7 which surrounds an individual's rights to their own person, and Section 1, which highlights the "reasonable limits" of Charter rights — for the broader social good."This is the Rule of Double Effect or Kierkegaard’s ‘Tragic Hero’ applied in opposition to assisted dying: foregoing individual liberty in favour of broader public safety or social good," stated Brenna.Regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, in 1994, Rodriguez still managed to euthanize herself with the help of an anonymous doctor.The RCMP conducted an investigation, but ultimately there were no charges laid.In the same testimony Rodriguez gave to Parliament, she stated, "Why it is illegal for someone to assist me to do something that is legal — is a paradox I will never understand."."But more to the point, it is a paradox which forces me to suffer greatly both mentally and physically."Now, does this not echoe the modern argument of MAiD, now legal, in Canada?MAiD, under Track 1 (the most popular track), requires that patients must have a grievous and irremediable medical condition and their natural deaths must be "reasonably foreseeable.".Brenna says that now, ethical MAiD arguments center around respect for the autonomy of the patient.Arguments against it concentrate on balancing patients' autonomy with respect for human dignity and reverence for life, and concerns for the motivations of a patient's decision making.Many also have concerns money, guilt or coercion could play an inappropriate role in the decision to pursue euthanasia. Fast forward to 2026: according to the National Post, Canada has blown past all other jurisdictions both in terms of the escalation in cases and the number of citizens dying from MAiD..There are 10 countries as of February 2025 that currently provide euthanasia, with most posting modest rates of growth and aggregate deaths of only a few hundred. New Zealand, has over 1,000 deaths since it legalized MAiD in 2021. Spain has had a total of 697 cases MAiD deaths since its legalization in 2021 as well, while Colombia recorded 692 MAiD deaths between 2015 and 2023..So far, 10 states in the US have also legalized MAiD, with the state of Oregon having euthanasia since 1998.According to a study from 2022, 5,329 patients have died by MAiD in total in the US. European countries have had euthanasia legal for decades, but still have rates well below Canada's. A 2023 study shows Switzerland's euthanasia cases totaled 8,738 cases over 20 years..In Belgium, during the first 21 years of euthanasia, 33,647 people were killed.The Netherlands is the only country with a higher share of total deaths from euthanasia than in Canada, though Canada does have a higher population, so the raw number of deaths is higher. Brenna says it is critical for debating MAiD to think about whether it is possible for people to decide which lives are "worth living."As Tom Koch, an ethicist at the University of British Columbia, wrote for the MacDonald Laurier Institute, with Canada deciding people should have the "right" not to live, a shift happened:."Life became a contingent value dependent on the individual’s state of mind."Quality of life became a moral standard that determined the right to decide to die."If life seemed somehow diminished and thus insupportable, an early ending could be demanded.""In the same vein, 'suffering' was redefined not as a state of untreatable, physical, end-stage discomfort but as an 'existential crisis' in which the lived life seemed insufficient, or might become so, for a person with a chronic and potentially (but not necessarily immediately) limiting condition," Koch stated.
